Ethiopia and the US have had a long and valuable relationship going back to 1903 when the first US ambassador arrived in Addis Ababa to present his credentials to the Emperor Minelik, though at a people-to-people level relations were much older. There have of course been occasional hiccups and sometimes more. Certainly relations during the Derg's military dictatorship between 1974 and 1991 were poor but this was an aberration. Ambassadorial relations were restored in 1992 and, indeed since the EPRDF took power, relations have been normal, and usually warm, for the last nineteen years.

In fact, since the early 1990s, Ethiopia and the US have largely maintained more or less effective co-operation in matters of security though the relationship hasn't been as close as some critics have tried to suggest. Ethiopia has never been a US "poodle". It has always acted in accordance with its own national interests, interests which have not been inconsistent with US regional interests. They have sometimes differed. However, that the position of the US on the one hand and of Ethiopia and IGAD countries on Somalia, and on security in the Horn of Africa, for example, coincides was made very clear once again at the meeting on the sidelines of the Kampala Summit. Equally, Ethiopia's commitment to the eradication of poverty with emphasis on sustainable development, good governance, democracy, and respect for human rights for both Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa are commitments that we certainly share with the United States.